The Tummy Ache Syndrome
by ChandaK562
Summary: Elle is injured during the Endgame Syndrome. Can X find help for her in time?
1. Default Chapter

**The Tummy Ache Syndrome**

They had been standing out there for hours trying to get a ride but every car had passed them with a scream. 'At least I'm not stuck in that human suit,' X thought with a sigh of relief as he reached up and undid his top a bit. It was so hot.

"X, don't do that!" Elle said as she glared at him. "We're trying to get a ride here not frighten people into the nearest insane asylum. Now put on a friendly alien expression. Here comes another car!"

X sighed loudly as he plastered what passed for a smile that would have done a lion about to settle into a large meal proud as a car came around the bend. As it sped away with the driver screaming, he turned to Elle to tell her exactly how unhelpful her kind was. He looked around in surprise when he didn't see her standing there beside him. Now where in the world could she... He suddenly heard a moan and looked down to find Elle lying on the ground clutching her stomach.

"Elle?" He dropped to the ground beside her not bothering with any smart remarks. The expression on her face had frightened him too much for that. "What's wrong?"

"My stomach," Elle whispered as she looked up at him. It was getting so hard to see. "Internal bleeding."

"No," X cried. If she was hurt internally then it would have had to have been caused when he.... He reached down, pulling her to him and trying to lift her. "Just try not to waste your strength. I'll get you to a hospital all right? Surely some human will stop when they see!"

"Wait," she softly murmured stopping him from lifting her. Already she could feel the sudden rush of pain ending. She knew what was coming now. "It's too late."

"No. No, it isn't!" X cried as he fought back tears. "Just hang on, alright? I'll get you some help! I promise! Don't talk like that! You aren't going to die!"

"X, it will be alright," Elle whispered. Her partner seemed more upset about the idea of her dying than she was. She smiled softly at him as her vision faded. "Goodbye, cowboy."

"No," X moaned as he felt Elle go limp in his arms, felt the life slip out of her body. "NO!!!!"


	2. Chapter 2

"NOOOOO!!!" X screamed, a loud scream like that of a wounded animal. He frantically shook Elle by the shoulders trying to force her to breathe again, to live again. This couldn't be the way things ended. He wouldn't let it. He slowly, reluctantly lowered her to the ground, not wanted to put her down but knowing he had to. He leaned over her, trying to repeat something he had saw a group of the human agents practicing a few months earlier. He fumbled, tilting her head back a little before pressing his lips against hers, pinching her little nose and blowing into her mouth.

"Elle, please!!" X whispered as he blew into her mouth frantically again and again. He had no idea if he was doing this right, no idea if there was something else that he should be doing as well. Why had he been so distainful of humans, of anything connected to humans? She could die and he wouldn't be able to do anything to save her!

"This isn't right!!! Take me, not her!!" X shrieked. She wasn't reacting, wasn't coming back. What was he going to do? He couldn't loose her! His chest was burning, his heart throbbing with this strange sensation. He looked up at the humans zooming by. Why weren't they stopping, trying to help? "HELP US!!! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP US!!!"

He frantically blew in her mouth again, trying to force the life back into her body, screaming between breaths for help. She was so cold, so very very cold. He blew again, a tiny bit harder. He had no idea of the force he needed to use for this. He didn't want to risk hurting her but....

Suddenly, she trembled a bit, her lips twitching as she tried to draw in a breath. "That's it," X whispered as he stroked her cheek. "Come on! Breathe!" She gasped again and again, fighting for breath as X stroked her, talking to her, begging her to come back. She let out one finally gasp and then her breathing miraculously settled into a very slow pattern.

"Okay," X whispered as he leaned down again, gently kissing her cheek before standing. "I'm going to get you some help now. I'll make those humans stop for us!" he looked down the road, seeing another car coming. This was very risky but he had no other choice. He stepped right out in front of it, screaming for it to stop. Maybe he would be hit, but at least the human driving would find Elle, would help her. That's all he cared about.


	3. Chapter 3

Brian Patters slammed the breaks on, swerving a bit before coming to a screaching stop on the side of the road. His wife, Ali, reached out clutching his arm as the alien approached the car.

"Please! I need help! My friend's hurt!" X called to the humans cringing inside the vehicle before hurrying back to Elle's side and kneeling beside her again. Her breathing was so labored. Who knows what he had managed to break inside when he fell on her.

"Brian, what are you doing?" Ali hissed as her husband pushed the car door open and stepped out. "Let's get out of here!"

"He said someone was hurt," Brian said as he hurried over to see what was going on. He wasn't sure what he could do to help a sick alien but he was a doctor. He couldn't just walk away and let someone possibly die. He stopped in surprise when he saw the alien knealing next to a blonde human woman clad in a black suit clinging to her hand and gently stroking her face, telling her she was going to be alright, that help was there.

"What happened?" Brian asked as he dropped to his knees on Elle's other side, reaching out to check her pulse and breathing. Her breathing was much too slow, her pulse rapid and thready. That along with her clammy skin and the slight blue tint to her lips were bad signs, signs that she was in deep, possibly irriversable, shock. "How long has she been like this?" He felt, trying to get a pulse in other locations but he was only able to find it in the carotid. He pushed one of her eyelids back for a moment. The pupils were dilated. Not good.

"I fell on her," X whispered as he watched the human examining Elle, shaking his head as he checked. That couldn't be good. "She was fine but then she just collapsed and.... Please help her!"

"How long has it been since she got hurt?" Brian asked. They didn't cover hysterical aliens in medical school. He didn't know how much information he was going to be able to get.

"An hour or two," X moaned. "I didn't know she was hurt! She didn't know she was hurt and then she collapsed and.... Please help her!!" Why hadn't he noticed something sooner? If she died it would be all his fault. He should have taken care of her.

An hour or two. Brian shook his head at that. This poor woman had almost no chance if she had been hemoraging that long. He looked up, intending to tell the alien that it was too late but he had such a sad pathetic look in his big eyes, begging him to do something, anything to try to save her. He pulled himself to his feet and started back to the car. He had to try to help even if he was afraid it was too late.

"Wait!" X called when he saw the human walking away. "Please don't leave!"

"I'll be right back. I've just got to get some supplies from my car!" Brian called. he couldn't believe that he was having to reassure a hysterical alien. "Just keep talking to your friend. I'll be right back."

"What are you doing?" Ali hissed as he opened the trunk and started to pull out equipment. Brian was very glad now that he worked as a volunteer with the local EMS when they needed extra people. At least he had the proper equipment that might make a difference in whether this woman lived or died.

"Brian?" Ali cried as she grabbed at him as he picked up the bags and the small oxygen cylinder. "Let's get out of here!"

"I can't. That woman's going to die if I don't do something," he said as he shook his wife off and hurried over to X and Elle again.

X looked up when he saw the human returning followed by a frightened female human who stood trembling a safe distance away. The human knelt by Elle again, feeling her pulse before getting some sort of cylindrical object and messing around with it, attaching various things to it before slipping a mask with some sort of bag like thing attached over Elle's mouth and nose.

"I'm just giving her some oxygen, alright?" Brian said as he adjusted the flow of the oxygen and then checked Elle again. Some of the blue coloring had faded from her lips. That was a good sign. He reached into one of the bags and got out the equipment he needed to get an IV running. Normally he wouldn't have had that with him but he had been helping out in a class and hadn't had a chance to return the supplies yet.

X cringed a bit as he saw the human pulling on Elle's jacket, ripping the sleeve and the sleeve of the white shirt beneath it before wrapping some rubber thing around her upper arm. He rubbed some sort of strong smelling stuff on the skin in the bend of her arm and then got a needle out and slowly inserted it into her flesh. X whimpered a bit when he saw blood appear at the sight of the puncture. Elle had already lost so much blood. What was this person doing taking more from her?

"It's going to be alright. It's just an IV," Brain said as he finished the hookup and raised the bag of fluid, applying pressure to get it to run in faster. This woman needed an operating room now though. "Do you think you can lift her? We need to get her to the hospital."

X nodded, reaching down and gathering Elle into his arms, carrying her towards the car and laying her down in the back seat as Brian followed along right beside him with the equipment, keeping the oxygen and IV running smoothly. X slipped in at her feet, holding them propped on his lap. She was just so still and pale.

"Okay. You hold this for me. Keep it elevated and put a slight pressure on it with your hand, alright?" Brian told X as he handed him the bag of IV fluid before getting behind the wheel, ignoring his wife's pleas not to do this, not to take this alien anywhere. He had no choice if that woman was going to have even a small chance of survival.


	4. Chapter 4

X slowly climbed out of the human's car, trailing along behind as a group of humans swirled around Elle, trying to see what they were doing to her. They had decended on the car in mass in response to the human doctor's call for assistance, carefully but quickly moving Elle onto a stretcher and rushing her inside. He followed the humans down a long hall, watching them work on Elle as they were moving her. Surely that wasn't the best idea. He bit his lip to hold back a sob as he saw them poking her, jabbing her with tubes and needles. Why did she have to be hurt? Why couldn't it be him instead? He deserved it!

"Okay, let's get her to the operating room now!" Brian called as he handed several vials of blood to a lab tech for typing and crossmatching. They didn't have time to wait for the results. If they couldn't get this woman to surgery immediately, she wouldn't have a chance. He shook his head a bit realizing she probably didn't anyway but he had to try. He looked back as they were moving her onto the elevator to see that the alien was still there, following along behind them like some sort of large heartbroken puppy.

"We're taking her to the operating room now. It's on the fifth floor. There's a lounge there where you can wait. I'll let you know something as soon as I can," he called before hurrying into the elevator and heading up.

X slowly walked over and tried to push the button on the elevator Elle had dissappeared into. It wouldn't light up though. He jabbed at it again and again and finally begin to frantically pound on it. Why wasn't it working? He needed to be upstairs, to be there for her!! Stupid piece of human equipment breaking down at the very moment he needed it!!

"Um, that elevator's for medical personnel only," X heard a timid voice say. He turned to find a small, even smaller than Elle, human clad in some sort of pink uniform standing behind him, looking at him with big frightened eyes. He whimpered a bit at the sight of those eyes, pale blue just like Elle's. What if he never saw those eyes again?

Amelia trembled a bit at the sight of the alien. She had seen the announcements on the news about the alien invasion, of course, had heard about the attack on New York but she had assumed it was all some sort of joke kind of like that War of the Worlds broadcast her grandma loved to tell her about. There was a really live alien standing in front of her though that proved she was wrong. She slowly walked over to him, forcing her fear down. He didn't really look dangerous despite those sharp looking claws and feet. He just looked very sad and lost. She reached out, carefully taking his hand. "The elevator you want is over here."

X let the little human lead him over to a different elevator that opened immediately when summoned. She stepped in with him and pushed the button for the fifth floor. "That's where they said they were taking your friend, right?" she asked. "To surgery on the fifth floor?"

X slowly nodded, not trusting himself to speak right now. The doors opened and the human led him out, leading him down another long hallway and into a room filled with chairs, many of which held humans who gasped and backed away in fright at the sight of him. X collapsed into the closest chair and buried his face in his hands. Where was Elle? Was she close by and what were they doing to her?

"Um, there are some forms that Nurse Jans says need to be filled out," Amelia said as she came over to the alien and sat down beside him. They could do without her downstairs for awhile. "Do you think you're up to that right now?"

X nodded again and slowly reached out, taking the papers from her and looking down at them. Name. He scribbled in Elle's real one. It didn't matter anymore anyway. MiB's covert status was blown. Age. Birthdate. He slowly wrote the answer down, regret washing over him as he remembered why he knew this. Some other agents had thrown a birthday party for Elle shortly after he had arrived, a birthday party he had managed to ruin by showing up, insulting the entire concept of having a celebration for being one year closer to death and.... He let out a soft whimper. He had told Elle she was one year closer to death and now she was....

"I can't do this," he whispered as he shoved the papers away. He couldn't look at them, couldn't face the reminders of how cruel he had been, how he had....

"It's alright. They aren't really important right now anyway," Amelia reassured him as she took the papers. She looked up just in time to see Nurse Jans coming approaching with a plastic bag. Amelia silently pleaded with her eyes not to do this, not to give this poor griefstricken man his friend's possessions right now but she either didn't realize or didn't care.

X's hands shook as the human handed him the bag, his fingers slowly opening it and looking inside. He reached in, lifting Elle's torn and cut jacket out and burying his face in it. He could still smell her sweet human scent. "No," he whimpered softly.

"It's alright. You'r friend's not dead. They just like to have the family take patient's things for safekeeping," Amelia whispered as she patted his hand, wondering if that was the proper way to reassure an alien.

"She's dying and it's all my fault! I was so mean to her and now I'm going to loose her! I don't want to loose her! I love her!! I don't want to loose her!!" X whispered as he started to sob, started to sob real tears, something he hadn't thought his people were capable of.

"Shussshhhh. It's alright. It's going to be alright," Amelia murmured as she reached out, wrapping her arms around the alien and drawing him to her in a big hug. She didn't know what else to do.


End file.
